Stores To Get Data from Deli...

American retailers will soon be able to extend the sales information and category performance monitoring used in center store categories to their fresh foods / perishable goods counters, following a recent announcement by independent consultants The Perishables Group and ACNielsen US.

The two companies have formed a business alliance which will eventually provide the first-ever total store performance measurements for clients, according to Tim Callahan, president, ACNielsen North America.

The Perishables Group will use ACNielsen POS scanner data from 30,000 census stores, along with its proprietary FreshFacts software to deliver in-depth data on the fresh foods market, including all major retailers in all major markets. The alliance will focus first on the produce department, and then roll out to all perishables departments including dairy, deli, bakery and meat by 2005.

FreshFacts will standardise the POS data for standard UPC and random weight products by retail account, enabling clients to analyze product distribution, movement, market share, price, promotion effectiveness and other market-sensitive information about fresh product sales.

According to Bruce Axtman, president and CEO of the Perishables Group, 'This alliance provides a quantum leap in capabilities for perishable department suppliers and their retailer partners. We will be able to provide the sales information, such as census-level chain data and rest-of-market comparisons, that are the standard in grocery but have had limited availability for perishable categories'.

The Perishables Group and ACNielsen Canada launched a similar service in 2002 to analyze fresh produce sales in Canada.

Further information can be found at www.perishablesgroup.com/fresh_news.html

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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